Many Canadian parents reject home-schooling as a viable option for their children because they don’t want them to be socially awkward.
But nothing inherent about home-schooling points to that as a likely result.
Home-schooled children have contact with neighbours, in extracurricular activities, and with children of co-workers and other home-schoolers.
Some people assume that parents who home-school their kids want to instill specific religious beliefs, but there are many different motivations for homeschooling.
Some dislike the values that are promoted in schools, others have high academic standards and little faith in the public school curriculum.
Often, parents want to focus on a particular strength or weakness in a child in a way that a teacher with responsibility for a whole class cannot.
Athletes and musicians often prefer home-schooling so they have more time for training.
Homeschooled children can often accomplish a lot more in a shorter period of time because they are not spending hours riding buses or interacting with peers outside the classroom.
Home-schooling provides students with opportunities to pursue different interests with a variety of people, rather than becoming locked into a group of students who are same age.
Parents who are concerned about the quality of their children’s education, should keep an open mind when it comes to home-schooling as a possible option.
I’m Roger Currie. Join us again in 2014 for more thoughts on the Frontier.
For more on education, visit our website www.fcpp.org.
